My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 519: One force defeats ten skills, and Xiahou is defeated by force
Liu Bei personally rewarded the soldiers, making sure everyone had enough to eat and was well fed. He also gave each of them three bowls of wine and then allowed them to have a good sleep.

At noon the next day, Liu Bei personally ordered all troops to march out of the camp and form a battle line, heading towards Xiahou Yuan's main camp in the north of the Yangtze River upstream.

Zhang Fei was full of energy. Although he was already in his forties, he still got up early in the morning. After a big meal and a short rest, he put on his armor and mounted his horse to follow his elder brother into battle.

However, the two or three thousand soldiers he brought back who participated in the feint landing yesterday might not have such good energy. Liu Bei was also very considerate of his soldiers and asked them to stay in the camp while other troops took on the main attack today.

Anyway, we have to leave someone behind to guard the house, and it is impossible to send out all the troops, so it doesn't matter who is left.

Pang Tong also followed Liu Bei into battle, but he must have hidden in a safe area at the rear, protected by a shield formation.

Today we should seek a strategy to quickly defeat the enemy, which was also what Pang Tong urged Liu Bei to do last night. Liu Bei originally had this intention, but considering that they had just crossed the river and Zhang Fei was also tired, Liu Bei was slightly shaken and thought about resting for another day or two before fighting again.

But Pang Tong persuaded firmly: According to the information provided by Wang Ping and other Bandunman generals, the troops sent by Xiahou Yuan to Dangqu and other places to collect food have not all returned to the Jiangbei camp. Only by attacking at this moment can we take advantage of the critical moment when the enemy troops have not yet gathered together and defeat them one by one.

Liu Bei also expressed some doubts about Pang Tong's statement at the time: Xiahou Yuan still had more than 50,000 troops on hand, and less than 10,000 were sent out. Even if these 10,000 people were allowed to return, Xiahou Yuan's strength would not increase by more than 20%.

In comparison, if our side could rest more fully before fighting again, is it possible that the improvement in combat effectiveness could exceed 20%?
Pang Tong firmly said to Liu Bei: "It's not the same. Judging from the number of troops, the return of the grain-raising army to the camp to join forces will indeed increase Xiahou Yuan's combat power by less than 20%. But if we also take into account the psychological warfare bonus, and make the enemy feel that the timing and battlefield selection of this battle were all designed by our side, the effect will be different."

Liu Bei thought it made sense, so he made up his mind and sent out troops early in the morning.

……

In the blink of an eye, it was already Si time.

Liu Bei and Zhang Fei's more than 30,000 infantrymen and Gan Ning's 5,000 naval forces, supporting each other by land and sea, slowly advanced to the east side of Xiahou Yuan's camp, preparing to launch a general attack from east to west.

Because of the existence of the camp, Liu Bei's army also prepared a large number of earth bags, shoulder poles and bamboo baskets, as well as simple trench bridge vehicles and even door planks and wooden rafts to break through the enemy camp's trench and antler defense line.

However, the walls of the village are generally not high, so there is no need for flying ladders and cloud ladders. At most, a few battering rams can be prepared to break open the village gate.

All the siege equipment was built and prepared in advance by Liu Bei's army in the rear, and was transported to the front line by Gan Ning's fleet before the battle.

Then they were unloaded in front of the enemy, only one mile away from the enemy camp, and pushed the last mile by the infantry.

Such behavior certainly dealt a heavy blow to the morale of Cao's army.

Some of Cao's generals saw Liu Bei's army unloading siege weapons right under their noses, and they were filled with righteous indignation and wanted to ask Xiahou Yuan to fight, requesting to go out of the camp and launch a counterattack in order to destroy all of Liu Bei's siege equipment.

However, Xiahou Yuan had suffered a series of minor defeats in the past few days, and his morale had been extremely low. He also had some paranoia about being tricked. He thought that this was still a trick by Liu Bei to lure the enemy to attack, and he must not fall into the trap. He ordered the entire camp to defend to the death, and did not stop the enemy from unloading and assembling in front of him.

The generals and soldiers of Cao's army were resentful of their commander's cowardice, but they dared not speak out.

Liu Bei was very pleased to see this dangerous scene. He pointed with his whip at Pang Tong and said with a smile:

"It's the military advisor's brilliant plan. Let our army unload the goods and assemble the equipment in front of Cao. Xiahou Yuan has been frightened by all kinds of tactics to lure the enemy and he doesn't even dare to come out. The morale of Cao's army must be further degraded."

Pang Tong echoed a few words, and then ordered his men to carry out the plan.

Dozens of soldiers with loud voices immediately approached the battle array two hundred steps in front of them, holding large shields and wooden trumpets, and shouted insults at the top of their voices:

"Xiahou! You fell into the trap again! Count how many traps you have fallen into! We fell into the trap when we pretended to be defeated in Dangqu! We fell into the trap at the old camp at Diaoyu Mountain! We fell into the trap again when we pretended to land yesterday, and even killed Zhang Xiu.

"Today, our army seized the opportunity and attacked you before you returned from collecting food. This is another trick! This stupid pig-like fellow, if he lives one more day, he will help Cao Cao fall into another trick. Whoever becomes your subordinate must have been unfilial in his previous life!"

Xiahou Yuan overheard what was happening in the camp and was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

Pang Tong, this vicious man, not only wanted him to fall into four traps, but also let his subordinates hear clearly how many traps the commander had fallen into before the decisive battle. With such a mentality before the battle, how could the subordinates have the confidence to hold on?

After Pang Tong let the scolding masters finish their scolding, Liu Bei only gave the Cao army soldiers a few more cups of tea to digest the bad news and brew negative emotions.

When the negative emotions had almost brewed, Liu Bei's army's general offensive began.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Wan Sheng!"

"The Han Dynasty will rise, and Cao Cao will fall!"

Thousands of Liu Bei's shield-carrying crossbowmen were the first to line up and fire the first wave of arrows at Cao's camp with their foot-operated crossbows in order to slightly suppress Cao's crossbow firepower.

As both sides came into range of each other, Xiahou Yuan certainly would not hold back, and angrily ordered the enemy to shoot back. For a moment, a rain of arrows crossed and broke through the air, and some arrows even collided in mid-air.

Xiahou Yuan originally thought that the enemy was not well prepared and did not prepare many large rattan shields taller than people as cover like in a siege, so they would definitely be at a disadvantage in a shootout.

But the crossbowmen of Liu Bei's army turned around immediately after releasing the arrows, and pointed the large shields on their backs towards the side of Cao's army. In this way, even if they were hit by arrows, they would be directly hit by the thick large shields, and they even saved the trouble of holding the shields with their hands. This kind of tactics and weapons were not used for the first time by Liu Bei's army. They had been used in some siege battles against Cao's army before. It was just that Xiahou Yuan had never seen it, and it was used against Cao Ren's troops at that time.

But at this moment, after seeing this scene, Cao's army realized that the suppression effect of their own bows and crossbows was not as good as expected, and they couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.

Especially those knowledgeable and experienced generals in the army, they could see at a glance the advantages and disadvantages of Liu Bei's army using this deployment in the attack on the camp -

Carrying a large shield on the back and turning away from the enemy when reloading, the biggest disadvantage of this tactic is that it has extremely weak resistance to close combat, but its advantage is that it is very efficient and labor-saving in defending against long-range attacks.

Imagine that when an army is lined up for battle, in order to prevent confusion and swaying, soldiers are generally not allowed to turn around at will. Once too many people turn around, it is easy for them to flee and the formation will be scattered. If they are attacked by the enemy in close combat, they will easily collapse.

In a siege, the attackers can do this because it is almost impossible for the defenders to open the city gates and counterattack. If it is a siege, it is understandable that the defenders want to carry a large shield to increase the defense of the crossbowmen, because the enemy melee soldiers cannot rush up the wall to fight.

But doing this in an attack on a camp or in a field battle is a great disrespect for the enemy.

Cao's army could immediately feel humiliated: the enemy completely looked down on our ability to charge and engage in close combat, and thought that we did not have the courage to open the door and counterattack, so they so unscrupulously used the crossbow tactics of strengthening long-range defense and sacrificing close combat defense.

As a result, not many Cao soldiers were killed by the rain of arrows, but many were discouraged by the humiliation.

Liu Bei's army showed no mercy in their offensive, one wave after another, and the connection was very smooth.

After several rounds of arrow attacks, the second-line light infantry carried simple trench bridge vehicles and door panel earth bags and ran forward at full speed.

When they encountered a pit, they threw earth bags to build trench bridges. After suffering some casualties from being shot, they withstood the firepower of Cao's army and placed some door panels and wooden rafts on top of the antler fortifications.

The third batch of armored heavy infantry immediately rushed up along the raft. Cao's crossbows had little effect on these soldiers, and the two sides soon entered a bloody close combat.

Horse-slaying swords flew wildly, breaking through leather armor, flesh, and bones. The spilled blood left thick dark red streaks on the antlers of the camp wall.

One after another, the steel-filled spears stabbed with all their might, each one penetrating into the flesh, with the sound of teeth-grinding friction as armor was broken.

The Cao army was not willing to be outdone. Xiahou Yuan's reserve troops took out heavy weapons such as maces and hammers, and even newly developed armor-piercing weapons such as iron rods or four-sided bronze spears. They would rush to wherever they saw fierce fighting and provide reinforcements.

Under the blows of heavy and solid iron blunt weapons, the combat effectiveness of Liu Bei's army's steel-armored warriors was slightly weakened, but they still had an absolute upper hand.

On the battlefield, one could see Liu Bei's elite armored soldiers from time to time. Even though they were clearly vomiting blood from being hit by blunt weapons, they were still able to hack and stab wildly and drag two more Cao's soldiers to take their place.

Xiahou Yuan continuously sent out reserve troops to engage in a fierce battle with Liu Bei, and also ordered the crossbowmen to retreat to the second line of defense of the deer horn trench and use projectiles to cover Liu Bei's second-line troops.

In contrast, the archers of Liu Bei's army were almost useless after the first camp wall deer horn fortifications fell into hand-to-hand combat. Although they could also shoot long-range arrows, they had no height advantage when shooting arrows on flat ground, and they could not observe the enemy behind the wall. They could only shoot completely blindly to give their friendly troops courage.

Xiahou Yuan relied on the advantages of multiple defensive positions and easy use of archers. In addition, the camp itself was more or less easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was located at a high altitude, so he managed to temporarily withstand Liu Bei's first wave of attack.

Especially weapons such as iron rods, hammers, and maces, when standing on the camp wall and smashing down from a high position, the gravitational potential energy and the force of the smashing are combined together. Even if the attacking soldiers are several times stronger, it is difficult to block and withstand it.

Xiahou Yuan felt that he had finally stabilized his position, and he was a little worried and regained some confidence. It seemed that it was still possible to hold off Liu Bei and dampen his spirit today.

This is also thanks to the fact that Cao's army has been aware of the high rate of armor-wearing in Liu Bei's army in recent years and has been trying to find ways to target it.

Although heavy blunt weapons are clumsy to use, they are still very useful in special environments where you are in a commanding position.

Liu Bei on the opposite side was a little anxious as he saw that the offensive was temporarily blocked and both sides were stuck in a desperate battle.

He frowned slightly and asked Pang Tong: "Didn't the military advisor say that today's battle has already brought Cao's army's morale to its knees? I didn't expect that after such a long battle, Xiahou Yuan's soldiers were still willing to fight for him? What can we do?"

Pang Tong also felt a little respect for him and sighed, "It seems that although Xiahou Yuan is not smart, he still has the support of the army and knows how to control his subordinates. Even after falling into so many traps, there are still people who are loyal to him.

But rest assured, my lord, the brave will win when they meet on a narrow road, and the low morale factor will not erupt immediately. As long as we persist, Cao's army will definitely collapse sooner.

If you are worried that the process is still too slow and the casualties are too heavy, you can let Wang Ping take those Bantun Barbarian soldiers as a reserve force and add them to the front of the attack. Perhaps there will be an unexpected breakthrough. I think Xiahou Yuan can withstand the offensive of our armored soldiers only by relying on his high ground to attack with heavy troops.

Facing such an enemy, it doesn't matter whether our army's armor is good or not. On the contrary, it is more important to be agile, good at climbing, and able to climb the wall faster. Danyang soldiers and Bantun barbarians are all good at climbing. Use armored soldiers to stick to the front and let Bantun barbarians climb the wall quickly, and we will definitely be able to defeat the enemy!"

When Liu Bei thought about it, he suddenly understood clearly.

Indeed, the most important thing at the moment is not the soldiers' defensive ability, but the speed and flexibility of climbing the rafts to the wall.

As expected, any type of troops must be used in coordination and their respective strengths must be brought into play in order to achieve the best results.

"Let Wang Ping prepare immediately and go out to support Yide!" Liu Bei made the decision decisively.

(End of this chapter)